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Forming a Youth Ministry Mission Statement

22 August 2012

UNASSIGNED

Why does your youth ministry exist? For a longer and fully developed book on the subject, we highly recommend Purpose-Driven Youth Ministry by our friend Doug Fields. Today we want to offer up a few key thoughts as you put yours together, or evaluate the one you inherited from the previous youth worker.

Keep it simple.
The best mission statements are easy to remember and easily unpacked. If you’re going to have a public mission statement, do everyone a favor and make it clear. Make it memorable. Try to fit a huge vision packed into a small number of words.

Make your mission who you want to become.
Form your mission statement around where you’re taking the youth ministry from here. If you wrote it today, you might write, “apathetic kids who are self-centered and forced to be here by their parents” but your vision for the future might be “world-changers shining the love of Christ by being the church to a lost world.” Think of what you see them becoming and point them in that direction.

Don’t keep it a secret.
If you don’t know the mission statement of your youth group, your students will never get it either. Go public! Buy a banner; hang it in the youth room; maybe even reiterate it in front of your youth group on a weekly basis. A mission is too important to leave hidden—once you land on it make sure you spread it far and wide.

Refresh it every few years.
Some people get married to their purpose statement after it has lost much of its impact. Don’t be afraid to change it up or make something clear that over the years has lost some of its impact. Gather up your volunteers or student leaders and talk through the potential changes together.

1 COMMENT

Our vision is a ministry that partners with parents to disciple youth who know Christ, worship God, know and obey God’s Word, practice Christian friendship, serve using their gifts, and share Christ with friends, family, and others.

(essentially the 5 purposes said in a way that is clear and with an emphasis on partnering with parents)

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